Well, my life has been rather stressful and busy lately, I have finally arrived in America. The Crossing from the Bahamas to Florida went well, a few things broke, but the sailing was good. From here I have to begin a new phase of this trip, this is the start of a new chapter. Time to push the miles hard and fast, hurricane season has started early, there is a tropical storm passing over me right now. I am now in the hurricane belt during hurricane season.

 

 

Civilization

I have lived a very remote isolated tropical existence for years now, my bohemian hippy soul has been so wild and free. I have adapted to, got used to, a life without many rules or controls, wild and free feels good. It has also been a tropically hot life, and both of these hippy girls have been naked for most of the last two months as a practical matter.

 

 

When Daisy and I finally arrived in Florida my boat mom messaged me saying  “you girls better put clothes on now, they will call the police if you are seen naked and they will fine or arrest you for it“, she says this in all seriousness. America is very prudish about nudity, this is not the caribbean anymore. Both our hearts sank and it has been very difficult to follow these restrictive prudish rules here, it is still so unbearably freakin hot everyday.

The temperature in Florida in the summer is still hotter than body temperature most afternoons and the humidity is up around 70% almost everyday. They all live in air conditioning when they tell you Florida is not that hot.

It is just so hot here

we are both melting in the heat

We both relent and do our best to be more modestly dressed when leave the boat and step on land. I even bought a few light summer dresses and a lightweight throw over shirt to cover up with. Even in the cockpit though, it is unbearably hot, can we be naked in the cockpit?…  it is screened in… mostly… with privacy screens… is that modest enough? Americans are so uptight about boobs and it is so crowded in here. We are not used to such crowdedness.

I wonder if the police will eventually come arrest me for my nighttime naked dancing ritual up on deck..? or being naked inside my own cockpit..?

 

Gulf Stream Crossing

I have now crossed the gulf stream a bunch of times, and this was the easiest crossing I have ever done, I did a perfect job choosing my weather window. It was so calm miss Daisy did not even get seasick, she did great. She says “sailing night shifts is so much easier when you are not seasick” with a bright smile on her face.

We did not film much of the passage because it is essentially boring, but you can    CLICK HERE    to see the video of the highlights if you are interested. I caught another Mahi Mahi and cried again while killing it. We were sailing conservative with a double reefed main and still ran at 8-9 knots SOG in the gulf stream with its current accelerating us northward.

The only incident of note was around 4am just before sunrise the second day. We were sailing along happily in calm winds around 14 knots, no gusting, calm seas below 1 meter, double reefed main under canvassed for the conditions we were in. So calm and gentle and peaceful as Daisy was alone at the helm, when suddenly, out of the blue, the boom just suddenly let itself out to the side, the running backstay running out with a zzzzt sound.

Daisy at the helm is confused at first, why would the boom just let itself out like that? We had a preventer on it, it should have been restrained tight. She gets up and begins to look at things trying to solve the puzzle, she wonders if maybe the preventer came loose? Nothing she is looking at makes any sense. The preventer is still tied to the toe rail but the top portion is coiled up at the toe rail with a double block on it? She wonders where did that come from?

She knows it’s time to call the Captain awake

 

 

I am not feeling well laying down below fully engulfed in my night time seizures when Daisy calls for me. I am mixed between dream world and reality trying to make sense of the two confusing perceptions blending together. Daisy gets me oriented and pulls me into reality as I stumble up on deck putting my life jacket on to come help my team. My body aches so bad I have tears streaming down my cheeks, the seizure hangover not yet done with me, my foggy brain struggling to focus.

I come up to the companionway and look forward where Daisy is directing my attention. The whole scene is calm, the ocean fine, no immediate dangers apparent in the moment but clearly the scene is not correct. Why does she have the boom so far out? She tells me she did not do that, it did it to itself. I am struggling to figure out what happened, as a few seconds tick by it occurs to me, the mainsheet holding the boom is only attached with one block, there should be two blocks holding it.

Slowly it dawns on me, the shackle holding the double block to the boom has broken off, no shock or sudden gust snapped the thick stainless steel, it just ever so gently and calmly broke and fell away. We have no control over the boom…!   Well this is not good. Even though we happen to be running broadreach, the boom being held from hitting the shrouds by the fully extended running backstay behind it, we have no control over it.

I tell Daisy to get me a tether and I crawl up on deck in a blurry state. Daisy is keeping close watch over me for my protection. I am tethered in on the rolling deck in the predawn light working to effect a solution. With my heart condition suppressing my heart rate I am passing out a lot, Daisy calling me awake each time and refocusing me. With my body being wracked by random electrical activity in my brain I struggle to focus and think. I take a spare preventer line from the rail and begin wrapping the boom to reattach the block. I call commands back to Daisy to help me from there.

The scene was a mess but I am a very tough and smart girl, I really am the girl you want on your team when shit goes bad, and so is Daisy. Together we are an amazing team on the ocean, the all girl boat. Once things are safe again Daisy sends me back down to bed to recover.

Nobody said sailing was always easy

This is a thing out here, sometimes the locals call us “YACHTIES” which is actually an insult to a real sailor. Yachties are rich people who go out in their fancy shiny new yachts on a saturday afternoon for a sporty 3 or 4 hours of sailing then return all excited to their yacht clubs for a fancy dinner to tell stories and brag about their awesomeness.

Sailors, real sailors, or even boat bums, are the ones who function in all conditions and handle everything good or bad that comes at them out there. We can overcome anything with our internal resources and do not lack ingenuity, bravery, strength or perseverance. We sailors are head and shoulders better stronger smarter and tougher than Yachties, rich people are almost always useless.

 

Port Canaveral Yacht Club

I had been to the Port Canaveral yacht club years ago on my way south. I knew some people there and still had a few friends there. WildChild has been wandering alone out in the wilderness for months now and could use safe harbour to rest and recover. There are many things on the to-do list that need to be done. The yacht club in America will have unlimited access to parts and materials and skilled labour for anything that I need to get done. We spent the last week fixing the boat.

If you remember that broken main hatch a month ago. My friend Rick from North Carolina had managed to order a replacement hatch to be cut and shipped to my friends here in Florida. High priority, fix and replace that broken hatch. It is so amazingly lovely that this yacht club has a workshop full of tools they are willing to let me use, this repair so much easier in a workshop than in the cockpit.

 

 

And…. look at how perfect the new hatch turned out, and so much stronger than before. The old hatch was made from a plastic called Lexan the new one is a polycarbonate almost as strong as steel. No more placing towels on my floor below everytime it rains.       YAY   🙂

 

Engine Maintenance

WildChild’s engine is 40 years old but made by those clever Germans, it is simple but rugged and tough, it’s why I love it so much. I have been putting off a repair it has been asking me for, you can    CLICK HERE   to see the video. I did not want to get into this tricky job in a remote place with no access to parts or professional skilled help. Things can and do go wrong don’t cha know. My thinking is, just baby the engine until I can get to Port Canaveral Yacht club to effect this repair with backup help available.

Well, we arrived last week and the highest priority on my to-do list for WildChild while here was to replace the timing belt on my engine. I knew it was way overdue, bits of rubber dust coat the engine everytime I use it. I had removed the timing belt cover a month ago and noticed the belt has been working its way forward and shredding itself on the edges of the pulleys. The belt is only half as wide as it should be..!

Eeek…     🙁

Now… I have no idea how to change a timing belt, honestly. I didn’t even know what one was or what it did a few months ago. My ignorance though is no excuse for not doing what is necessary for WildChild to stay strong and keep going forward. Hey ladies… how many of you fix your own engine? No… none… why…?   because it is scary dirty technical and hard..!   Well…  I do not have the luxury of letting those small pesky details keep me down.

 

 

I was about to conquer yet another engine repair. I have spent most of the last week edifying myself and dispelling my ignorance with my best friend mr. YouTube. Watching videos of people doing this job and learning what all the scary steel thingies do. I got out and read the engine manual on how to do this job and honestly did not understand half the words in it..!

I was so scared about this one. If you make a tiny mistake changing your timing belt, your engine becomes a paperweight. The pistons slam into the valves and bend them all to shit and damage the heads. You will need to rebuild your engine if you fuck this up. I have no money and cannot afford to rebuild or replace my engine, this repair MUST go well, but Murphy’s laws always lurks in the corner.

I waited until I got to America the land of everything before I started tackling this scary job. God and the angels smiled down upon me though, there is an amazing mechanic right here at this Yacht club named Josh. I asked around and found this wonderful man and asked him if I could hire him to supervise me thru this repair, his words my hands. For a very reasonable fee he agreed, that in the evenings, after work, he would come over to guide me.

So it Began 4 days ago.

He came over, looked at everything, said “no problem this will be so easy Lexi“. nothing to be afraid of. On Wednesday night he told me what to remove and what I needed to do to expose the belt to be ready to remove it. Daisy and I worked together during the day Thursday and did a good job. I invented a camshaft locking tool that worked brilliantly. Figured out a clever way to lock the fuel pump using a socket, I did not have the special factory tools “needed” to do this job so I improvised.

Thursday night after work, Josh came over and said “good job girls, this is perfect, we are ready to go“. I wanted his help for the critical part, just incase something went wrong, I wanted an expert at hand. Everything was going beautifully, with the new belt on, nothing moved a micrometer, everything stayed timed and aligned perfectly. Right at the last step, tighten the eccentric pulley, Murphy entered the yacht to work his cursed magic.

 

 

The last people to change this timing belt  (ahem… evil Monkey) fucked it up and made mistakes, including damaging a pulley that has been stripping the belt slowly over time. He also stripped the threads of the tensioner pulley in the engine block, when we went to tighten it down it would not tighten..!   The threads finished stripping out and the bolt just slid out..!

Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… Ohh my Lord… 

I am in full panic mode…! The shit just went unexpectedly bad, and so fast too, one bad second and everything turns to shit. Instant terror… I just lost my engine… I just lost the boat.

Josh, what a sweet and amazing human being, I think he could hear the panic running thru my head. He was just so calm as he assessed the situation. Josh smiles, turns to me and says…  “… well yes… right now you are fucked…  but just relax… I can fix this… no big deal… if I had the parts it is a 10 minute job… I will order an M10 1.5 heliocoil kit and come tomorrow to fix this I promise… I got you… Lexi just put the stairs back in place and try not to think about this anymore tonight… try to let it go…” he has such a reassuring presence about him.

Stopping my panic did not go so well, but I worked hard for the rest of the night to let it go and trust Josh. Daisy kept trying to calm me off the ledge and and give me her faith and strength, my light twin is far more optimistic than I am.

Good thing I already had my plan B and plan C in place for just such possibilities before I started. Smart Captain always thinking ahead, fearing Murphy’s eternal interference.

 

 

Josh came back yesterday as promised, with the exact parts he needed, and repaired the stripped block within about 15 minutes as promised. WildChild’s engine is running perfectly again and she is ready to jump again as soon as the weather clears.

 

Checking into America

This subject is a bit complicated, and if you are curious you can     CLICK HERE    to go watch the video about checking into America again. But essentially, after fighting with their stupid stupid CBP ROAM app for hours… they denied us entry, no explanation.

 

 

Last Blog I told you the universe was backing me into a corner, pushing me towards solo sailing long overnight passages against my will. Sister Daisy felt so bad for me, pure love kindness and empathy, she discussed it with her boyfriend and decided to sail with me a few more weeks until Valerie could join me in New York City. A personal sacrifice of incredible proportions. Goodness this girl is just so amazing. I cannot even imagine WildChild without her smiling face onboard anymore.

 

 

Her sacrifice was so kind… so amazing…  and it turns out.. for nothing. America, being the mess they are, refused to let her stay 2 extra weeks to help me. They said that as a courtesy they would allow her to enter the country but she must be out by June 14th at the latest..!   If only she had paid a commercial carrier for a ticket to enter she could have stayed for months, but on a private vessel she could not.

So many stupid rules in America to protect them from “terrorism“, for security reasons they say. Daisy tried to book a shuttle bus from here to the nearest Airport and they refused her for “security” reasons, cruise ship passengers only. America is so retarded sometimes.

 

 

Well fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck… I came out of the office realizing I was so close to a good solution but got screwed by the American government. So depressing. Tuesday, after we checked in, I fell apart. I just broke down crying in the fetal position, so close to success but slapped in the face by the American government for pure stupidity. This leaves me in a horrible position again.

Why can’t my life be easier? 

So miss Daisy has booked a flight home for this Tuesday. She does so miss her boyfriend and family back home, she will be so happy to see them again. Soon my best friend will leave me and I will be forced to face the ocean alone again.

Desperate, I reached out to my friend Rick from North Carolina and asked him if maybe he might be free to sail with me for a while. He agreed and flew out here yesterday. At least I have someone to cover the night watches so I can sleep. Rick is a nice guy with ocean experience so hopefully does not get seasick. Somewhere mid to end of June I have a good crew named Valerie coming to help me finish getting home.

 

Looking Forward

With the week in the safety of Port Canaveral Yacht club I have been able to get a whole host of things off WildChild’s to-do list, including buying a shiny new white board to write the to-do list on.   ha ha ha…

I have also had the privilege of reconnecting with friends I met long ago. Sky and Julie are just the sweetest people I have been so happy to hug again, they helped me book into their yacht club. Captain Bill and Brenda are so very amazingly wonderful people too who have also helped drive me around to conquer things on my to-do list.

It took me a while to separate the insanity of the American Government from the wonderful Americans I meet along the way, you really cannot judge the people by their government. Mind you, I would not want to be judged by the recent insane behaviour of the Canadian government either.

WildChild is currently in good shape like a racehorse at the starting gates again, ready to jump. There is a freak early season tropical storm passing overhead today delaying our departure. Miss Daisy has booked a flight home for Tuesday June 7th and I will have a lot of crying to get thru to face that. My weird loyalty problem making it so ever difficult for me to let her go, I am just sensitive like this. When she leaves I return to a hard life and being the loneliest girl on the ocean again.

 

 

I have Rick to help me thru the next few jumps until Valerie is ready to join me. Tuesday morning my friend Sky comes to pick up Daisy and drive her to the airport in Orlando. Tuesday morning I have scheduled in an hour to cry and accept Daisy’s departure, then WildChild heads back out to sea.

In theory we will have bad light squirrely winds Tuesday and not make many miles. I want to jump up to the north end of Florida 140 nautical miles. It will take 20-40 hours in the light winds though. Anchor then prep from the next jump to maybe Charleston South Carolina. I intend to completely skip the state of Georgia due to the rampant and obvious government corruption up there. I will stay as far away from them as possible, that state is so screwed up they are dangerous. There are hundreds of stories of corruption from them you can look up if you are interested.

Avoid Georgia at all costs

I really wish my life was easier. This sailing thing got so much easier when Daisy joined the yacht. Sailing with someone you like, you understand, who is competent and strong and amazing, makes everything so much better. Sailing got so easy with Daisy’s help, we sailed on and off the anchor regularly because she is capable and competent. Now it is time for my life to get hard again.

I need to accept my reality, she has to go home, where she belongs, and I have to face my life choices head on. My bank debit card just expired, one credit card just expired and my other credit card does not seem to work in American bank machines. I am far from home and have no access to my bank accounts or money, should I say bank credit.

Far from home, broke lost and alone, how hard can the last 2700 miles be..?

My life is anything but boring huh… at least I was able to replace damaged cameras to keep the videos coming for you. Follow along and we will both find out how this ends.

 

hugs from far away

 

 

Wild Captain Lexi

 

cheers sailors and sailing fans…

 

all prayers accepted and welcomed….